Amos 2:3Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Therefore, the king of Israel, the king of Judah, and the king of Edom joined forces. Faced with a severe water shortage, they sought the prophet Elisha’s help and implored him to appeal to the Lord on their behalf. When this prayer was answered, the Moabites were subsequently vanquished. The resentment of the Moabites towards the Israelites was fueled by their earlier defeat, supported by the king of Edom. Unable to bring harm to the dead king, they resorted to desecrating his remains by incinerating them, as if to inflict further injury upon both the Israelites and their former ally. Thus, it is declared that their cities will be consumed, and they will face destruction—not through sickness or common afflictions, but with a great outcry, as if in the throes of battle. The judgment extends to their judges and leaders, who will fall alongside those they led, for they were the architects of their wicked pursuits.

And I will send fire upon Moab, and it shall devour the foundations of his cities; and Moab shall perish in weakness at the ruckus and at the sound of the trumpet; I will destroy the judge from among them, and I will put to death all his nobles with him, says the Lord.

The descendants of both Ammon and Moab hail from the lineage of Lot, the nephew of Abraham. This illustrates that God is the Sovereign over all humanity and that all souls are under His dominion as their Creator. He also addresses the offense against the king of Edom, specifically the wrongdoing of the Moabites, who desecrated his remains with their cruelty, sparking his ire even post-mortem. It is narrated that after the Edomite king, who allied with Joram, king of Israel, and Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, against Moab, was buried, the Moabites exhumed his bones in retaliation for the suffering he caused them. Consequently, God proclaims that He will send fire upon Moab, either targeting the capital which bears their name or the entirety of their territory, to consume the structures of Carioth, a city name, although the Septuagint rendering speaks of ‘his cities,’ meaning Moab. They shall perish at the clamor and tumult of the victorious army, which is denoted in Hebrew as “saon” and “therua,” alongside the blast of the trumpet, referred to as ‘sophar.’ When Moab meets its demise, the counsel of its leaders will prove futile, as their officials will be destroyed along with their cities.

Just as we are not to displace the captives of Solomon to Idumea, relegating them from the high and heavenly to the low and earthly—as Gaza and Tyre have done—so too we should refrain from desecrating the remains of the king of Edom, reducing them to dust and ashes. The Jews misinterpret spiritual truths, treating them as mere corporeal matters, losing sight of the royal significance found in the scriptures, which they diminish through trivial genealogies and hollow tales. This act is not confined just to them; it is echoed by all heretics who assert that God, like men, occupies a lofty throne with His feet planted on the earth, possessing a nose to inhale the fragrance, eyes to see, hands to manipulate, feet to traverse, ears to listen, a mouth to articulate, and teeth to crush food. Whoever, upon reading that Judah approached Tamar the harlot and fathered two sons (Gen. 38), sticks to an obscene literal interpretation instead of ascending to a more profound spiritual comprehension, desecrates the remains of the king of Edom. Similarly, anyone who believes that Hosea took a harlot as a wife (Hos. 1) and interprets those words solely according to their literal expression also burns the bones of the king of Edom.

Therefore, the Lord will send fire upon Moab, whose name signifies "of the father," because although he was created by God, he has turned away from Him. It will consume his cities or towns, notably Carioth; hence, Cariathiarim translates into our language as ‘city of forests.’ Moab shall perish in no other manner than by the uproar, tumult, and the blast of the trumpet, and shall be struck by elevated understanding—which in sacred literature is likened to the sound of the trumpet. The Word of God will bring ruin to the judges and princes and all who govern earthly matters, while directing the teachers of the church to proclaim: “Go up to the high mountain, you who bring good tidings to Zion; lift up your voice with strength, you who herald good news to Jerusalem” (Isaiah 40:9).